Smile With Us Tours In Africa — Local services in Kilimanjaro

My family completed a private 14 day safari in Tanzania (plus a couple of pre & post days in Arusha and Dar Es Salaam) in July 2024. Of these, 7 days were in the North, and the remaining 7 days were in the South. It also included a couple of flights within Tanzania. The entire trip was arranged with the help of ‘Smile With Us Tours In Africa’, and I have nothing but nice things to say about them. All planning, booking, payments, etc. were centrally coordinated by Jacob, who has been absolutely wonderful!

I started by requesting an itinerary from Jacob. He was prompt, and the itinerary he shared covered all the parks I wanted to visit. I worked with him closely to fine-tune the number of nights in each park, change specific camps / lodges, and add extra activities like walking safaris and night safaris. This took several iterations, and Jacob was always very prompt in sharing the revised itinerary. I was working with a couple of other providers as well, and Smile’s quote was the best for the itinerary I wanted. Once everything was to my satisfaction, I finally booked the safari with him in July 2023 by paying 30% of the cost in advance (with the remaining due a few days before the start date).

Considering the amount involved ran into 1000s of dollars, I was apprehensive about the advance as well as the final payment. After all, I would be paying the whole amount before the safari had even started! What if Smile couldn’t deliver, or if things went wrong? Fortunately, my apprehensions proved to be completely unfounded!

From booking till the beginning of the safari, Jacob kept me informed periodically about the progress regarding hotel bookings, flight bookings, etc. He was also very responsive whenever I had any question – he typically responded within a few hours of my email, which was amazing considering the time difference of 7 hours between the US and Tanzania! A few days before the start of the safari, he also shared his local contact numbers as well as the contact number of the guide assigned to me.

Once my trip started, the execution by Smile / Jacob was flawless. All airport pickups and drop-offs were on time, and the guides / drivers assigned to me were pleasant, welcoming and knowledgeable. The camps / lodges were excellent, and the 4x4 Land Cruisers assigned to us both in the North & South circuit were in excellent condition with comfortable seating, a built-in fridge and outlets for charging.

I firmly believe that the true test of any organizer is when things go wrong, and Smile / Jacob shined there as well.

We had 2 nights booked in a lodge in Nyerere (Nyerere Tented Camp). When we reached there, it had a lot of things that ticked us off: the atmosphere was not at all welcoming, it had hygiene issues, and it had geckos – lots of them! Having geckos on the walls is one thing - this place had so many crawling on the floor of the restaurant!! I brought this up with Jacob, and he immediately found an alternate accommodation for the second night – and this was during the high season!

Another instance of making things right was when our Land Cruiser broke down on the last day (which is not a reflection on the condition of the vehicle – the best of vehicles break down in the tough conditions of these parks!). Jacob worked with our lodge, and arranged a game drive through them to make sure that our experience didn’t suffer and we ended our trip on a happy note!

All in all, I had a very positive experience with Smile / Jacob from the beginning of the planning to the end of the trip. I would not hesitate to utilize their services again, and whole-heartedly recommend them!

A special shout-out to our guide Salum Msese (aka Salim) – he was absolutely wonderful, and went above and beyond several times in the 7 days we spent with him on the Southern circuit. He was always eager to show us as many animals as possible, and took every effort to ensure this – he followed lion footprints, spoke with other guides, and made sure we had the best...

I worked directly with Smile with Us Tours in Africa to book a 9-day safari in southern Tanzania to the lesser visited parks--Nyerere, Mikumi, Udzungwa Mountains, and Ruaha National Parks. I was assigned to the travel program as curator of education at a top US zoo, so I knew wildlife safari operations and possibilities. I purposely chose these lesser visited parks as I wanted to experience African ecosystems and wildlife without the crowds and swarms of vehicles--I wasn't disappointed as three days we only encountered two to four other vehicles! We saw a plethora of wildlife, including birds and the landscape was beautiful and the ecosystem was intact.

Smile with Us Tours in Africa worked with me to customize their 8-day fly by safari and even arranged a visit to a site they had never gone to before. They listened and added a variety of activities, 2-night drives, a walking safari with rangers, and two cultural experiences with the Maasai. The daily itinerary was full, but our driver/guide shortened a couple of days so we could relax at our "camps".

The three camps where we stayed at were very nice and the staff worked diligently to take care of our needs and desires. Smile with Us Tours offered the option to upgrade our camps if we wished. The food was varied and offered a variety of local and continental dishes. There were always choices and plenty of vegetables and fruits.

Our driver/guide went out of his way to listen to us and work to meet our wishes and expectations (as much as possible). He worked 12-14 hours each day and provided us with some extra experiences and tastes that were not part of the itinerary. It was nice to have additional guides join us and help lead the safari drives, boat trip, night drives, hikes and walking safari. Our driver/guide recognized that he needed to improve on his English comprehension, but overall, he very good as a leader and his personality was fun loving, yet serious and concerned that we had a great experience.

The land cruiser was adequate, but showed some wear and tear as the roads were rough on a vehicle. There was plenty of room in the vehicle and the roof raised to allow all of us good viewing of the wildlife we encountered. We had a couple of minor maintenance issues, but they were remedied quickly or taken to the "shop" after we were dropped off at camp.

All in all, great value for the 9-day safari and I would recommend you book with Smile with Us...

From start to end the experience with Jacob and Smile With Us was brilliant. We'd never been on safari before but Jacob made it simple, suggesting a fantastic 6-day trip from Dar es Salaam to Selous and Mikumi national parks. Nothing was too much trouble.

On the day we started the wonderful driver and guide Omari showed up with a rugged Land Cruiser, which is just as well as there had been a lot of rain and the vehicle's 4-wheel drive was needed at times as we sloshed through deep mud and water. Throughout Omari was incredible. Really knowledgeable and nothing was too much trouble. He also has a deep respect and love for animals and wildlife, even to the extent of waiting for a column of soldier ants to cross the road in front of us. We saw elephants, lions, hippos, giraffe, buffalo, wildebeest, impala, warthogs, hyaena, zebra and loads of birds and other animals. Perhaps one of the highlights was seeing a huge crocodile eating a zebra on land right next to our vehicle while hordes of vultures waited to come in for their turn.

Omari always seemed to have a six sense when it came to finding interesting things to see. He was also one of the most friendly and sociable people I've met, always stopping to chat and exchange info with other drivers and park rangers, or helping change a tyre on another car.

The accommodation was good, and we never had to worry about food or water. There were long distances covered, especially driving between Selous and Mikumi, but for us that was part of the fun, and having the opportunity to see ordinary life across Tanzania.

The last night was our wedding anniversary and Jacob arranged for a group of Maasai warriors to sing and dance for us at dinner while delivering a cake. Truly special memories.

We can't recommend Smile With Us Tours enough. If you choose one company,...